Love, Tears, and Rock 'N Roll
by RockAndRollTrain
Summary: Summer has feelings for Zack. A well-known fact to everyone except Zack. Zack has feelings for Summer. A well-known fact for everyone except Summer and Zack.
1. In The Beginning

Dewey's eyes were glued to the clock, waiting for the band members, newly out of high school, to come crashing through the door. Zack was, as usual, the first one to barge in, his guitar slung over his shoulder. Katie was in next, almost catching Freddy in the nose with her bass as he ran through behind her. Lawrence came in a few seconds after that, and Dewey jumped to his feet, excitement clearly etched on his face.

"Guys," he screamed, "you're all eighteen now, right?" Everyone took a step back, Dewey Finn was either drunk beyond all belief, or so excited he'd probably have a heart attack if they didn't answer soon.

"Uh, yeah," Freddy managed to finally get out, just as Dewey looked like his head was going to do a hand grenade impression, "Lawrence turned eighteen last week."

"HELL YEAH!" Dewey vented his built-up excitement in two words, leaving the rest of the band shuddering, fearing what their instructor was going to do next.

"Dude, what's your point?" Zack asked, as Katie and Lawrence nodded.

"We can play clubs now, man! This is it, the pinnacle of our band this far, eight years of practice and we finally get to go places and blow peoples' minds! This is our chance to land a record deal!"

This took a few moments to dawn on the rest of the band, whose faces slowly lit up as they realized what this meant. Suddenly everyone was jumping with excitement, and Katie whirled and hugged the nearest guy to her, which left Lawrence in the awkward position of having a very attractive bassist clinging to him while her boyfriend looked on as if he was wondering how many of his drumsticks he could fit down Lawrence's throat.

Just as Freddy looked ready to kill someone, Katie let go of Lawrence, who stumbled a few steps backwards, eager to get away from the angry drummer. Katie just smirked.

"Aww," she teased, leaning in to kiss Freddy on the cheek, "is someone jealous?"

All she got was an odd gurgling sound as Freddy processed what had just gone on.

**Elsewhere:**

Summer was furious. She hated fancy restaurants, she hated having to dress up, and above all she hated all of these idiots her parents set her up with. Why were they screwing around with her social life anyways? Her train of thought was disrupted by the neanderthal sitting across from her, who was for the twentieth time this date trying to slide his hand up her skirt.

"Get off," she snapped, smacking his hand away, "I'm leaving." She headed for the door, before being hit with the sad realization that she had got a ride with the shaved ape who was now grinning like an idiot as she glared at him from near the coat rack. Oh well, she thought, at least she had a few friends who could pick her up. She flipped open her cell as her date got up from the table, visibly angry. She opened her speed dial and hit one.

"Summer!" Her date had finally caught up with her outside the restaurant. "Wait! We're not done yet!"

Drunken rage was practically frozen into his face as he stepped forward trying his best to both stay upright and be menacing. He raised his fist as if he was about to hit her, but turned as he heard a motorcycle on the road behind him.

Summer lowered the arm she had raised to defend herself at the sound of the Harley coming down the lane. She knew it was him, it had to be.

Zack pulled up alongside the two standing by the roadside, just out of the restaurant. Summer's face lightened a little as she saw him, while the other man just seemed too drunk to think.

Summer ran over to the biker, hoisting herself onto the seat behind him and wrapping her arms around his chest in one movement, perfected over many bad dates gone wrong.

As Zack drove away, he felt Summer rest her head on his back. She breathed in deeply, trying hard to suppress the tears welling in her eyes.

"Thank you, Zack." she whispered, but he couldn't hear her over the motorcycle.


	2. Rock'N'Roll Band

Sorry for the long wait guys, I don't really have an excuse.

Zack stopped outside Dewey's apartment, which seemed ominously quiet, considering the group he knew was still in there. He reached behind his back and gently shook Summer awake, and he led her inside.

When they stepped through the door, those who were awake came to meet them. This amounted to only Lawrence, since Dewey had passed out on the couch, and Katie had fallen asleep with her arms wrapped tightly around Freddy, who had since lost touch with the world, whether through sleep or lack of air was yet to be seen.

Lawrence looked around at the rest of the band. "Don't wake them up, they need the sleep."

Zack nodded, and Summer ran over to the last free space on the couch and curled up. She was asleep within minutes.

Lawrence went back to reading his copy of _The Aeneid, _while Zack sat at the table and pulled a crumpled sheet of paper out of his pocket. He looked at the lyrics to his latest song-in-progress and sighed. He put the paper back in his pocket and laid his head down on the table. After a few seconds, he found himself watching Summer as she slept. He frowned, watching her smile slightly in her sleep.

How did she cope with all these failed dates? It made no sense to him, how she had been crying into his back not even twenty minutes ago, and now she seemed so happy. He felt sorry for her, at least his parents had stopped running his life, but hers seemed intent on staying behind the wheel as long as they could. He had mentioned it to Katie once, and she had suggested that maybe he should ask her out himself, with one of her seemingly patented I-know-something-you-don't-know-but-I-bet-you'd-want-to-find-out looks.

He smiled as he thought of that. Katie had an interesting perspective on life. If a question was asked by a guy, the answer was invariably a stunningly flirtatious smile and a hair flip that left the better ninety-five percent of men weak-kneed and sweating slightly. This approach had caused a truckload of "incidents" over the past year or so, usually beginning with Freddy and an intoxicated male admirer, and ended in hospital visits and casts for the unfortunates who made the mistake of angering the ADHD drummer.

Zack had quickly brushed off Katie's suggestion. It just seemed foolish to him. Her problem was that she had all these men hitting on her, and he would just be another one on the list. Feeling suddenly inspired, Zack pulled out his lyrics paper and started to write.

* * *

The next morning, Summer woke up to a slow, persistent prodding motion in her shoulder. After blearily shaking her head for a few moments, she disentangled herself from Dewey, whose face was a picture dictionary entry for embarrassment, due to the fact that he had woken up in the morning with his hand further up her skirt than a good majority of her failed dates had ever gotten.

Katie's giggling drew attention though, since she was standing in the door, which allowed both a view of the kitchen, the living room, and the bathroom. The latter came immediately to the front of everyone's minds, since it wasn't beyond Freddy at the best of times to forget to close the door if he was taking a shower, even more likely considering the quantity of alcohol consumed the previous night. To quote Lawrence, the man "had a smell reminiscent of a ten-gallon barrel of hard liquor, with the slightest hint of high-end cologne."

Zack had attempted to make himself comfortable in an armchair over the night, but he still woke up stiff and sore. Dewey of course, seeing the band all awake, called an immediate impromptu rehearsal as soon as Freddy got out of the shower. After the group had spent a good two hours or more jamming in the living room, culminating in an overdriven, speeding version of Kansas' _Dust In The Wind, _Dewey announced that he had arranged the band's first club show to happen that night.

* * *

There it is folks, Chapter Two, four months or so in the making. Hopefully I'll update sooner next time. -RockAndRollTrain 


End file.
